Gone Fishing
by zweihaender
Summary: SLASH -- You know how Zuko and Sokka said they'd "gone fishing" in the Boiling Rock arc? Everyone decided to take them up on it, the morning after they came back, and they get into a few compromising mishaps.


Contains some spoilers for the Boiling Rock arc.

Note: Firebenders may function as clothes-dryers. LOL plot device.

.. .. .. ..

Zuko blew another sweat-soaked lock of hair out of his eyes for the tenth time that morning. "I can't believe I'm doing this."

"Oh, for fuck's sake." Sokka rubbed his wet face and shot Zuko a withering look. "I told you lying about going out hunting was a bad idea, but did you listen to me? Oh, _no_." He went back to hacking a haphazard path through the dense vegetation, muttering darkly, "… don't know why they even dumped _me_ in _his_ mess—"

"Hey!" Zuko yelled in indignation as he leaped over an arching root, seized Sokka by the shoulder and forcibly turned him around. "I wouldn't have made up that excuse if _you_ hadn't gotten it in your head to break into a maximum security prison—"

Sokka backhanded Zuko's hand off his shoulder. "And _I_ never asked you to—aw, forget it." He looked away and slumped in defeat. "We've been through this a million times already." He walked off, then crouched behind a gnarled bush and sheathed his sword.

Zuko leaned his damp head against his forearm on a tree nearby, and sighed. "I still don't get why I—"

"Shut up," Sokka suggested, startling Zuko out of his moping. Sokka beckoned Zuko to come closer, and pointed out an animal snuffling on the far side of the bush. "Help me get that—" He blinked, then looked again. "… what the _hell_ is that?"

Zuko sat on his haunches and peered through the looking-glass Teo had lent them, twiddling some dials as he did so. "Uh… a moosecat?" he hazarded.

Sokka tilted his head, squinting through the perspiration trickling into his eyes. "Sure it's not a monkeycow?"

Zuko stowed away the looking-glass, unable to recognize the animal in any magnification even as it lumbered its way towards them. "Well, it certainly looks…" Dangerous? Life-threatening? Zuko settled for a less unpleasant word. "… large."

"Larger than fish," Sokka said, eyes slowly glazing over with naked hunger. "Come on, we should get it."

Neither of them moved. A bug chittered past.

Sokka elbowed the other boy. "Well, go on, Zuko, that thing's not gonna hunt itself for us," he whispered.

Zuko stared back, confused. "Hold on, I thought you said 'we,'" he whispered back.

Sokka smiled beatifically. "That I did, my friend, that I did."

The furrow between Zuko's brows deepened. "So why am I the only one who'll—"

"Ah." Sokka draped a magnanimous arm around Zuko's shoulders, shaking him a little. "I see you are a little confused about the mechanics of my plan. The idea is, you go there," he pointed again through the bush while Zuko nodded, "cut the sucker's head off, chuck the body back here, go back, and do the same thing to all its furry little friends." He beamed.

Zuko continued nodding without any change in expression. Then he said, deadpan, "That's the dumbest strategy I've ever heard."

Sokka dropped his arm. "How would you do it, then, Mr. Hunting Strategy Expert?" he hissed. "Because I can't have you insulting everything I do."

Zuko raised his good eyebrow placidly. "I wasn't insulting you. And I was about to say that _you_ should do it, since you're the one with the long-range projectile weapon." He tapped the boomerang slung over Sokka's back. "That way," Zuko continued, "we won't even have to leave our position. Just knock 'em out as they come."

Sokka considered this with grudging admiration. "Point taken," he admitted as he reached for his boomerang and smoothly flung it at the unsuspecting creature. They watched it keel over in a dead faint, but it made no sound as it vanished behind the undergrowth.

"Did you get it?" Zuko asked as Sokka caught his boomerang with a satisfying _thunk_.

Sokka stared at Zuko, insulted. "What do you mean, _did you get it_, of _course_ I got it, I've never _not_ gotten anything with my—"

Zuko waved an impatient hand. "Did you hear it _fall_?"

"I—uh. Well." Sokka began fidgeting. "My boomerang _did_ hit it on the head."

Zuko scowled as he tried to think. "Yeah, but I didn't hear it fall. For all we know, it might've just run off to tell all its 'furry little friends' to gang up on us."

Sokka imagined Zuko being assaulted by a mob of angry woodland animals, and stifled a giggle. "You wanna check it out, then?"

Zuko made no move to get up. "Your kill, Sokka."

"Hey, this was _your_ idea!"

"Fine," Zuko said, attempting to sound more confident than he felt. "We'll _both_ check it out."

Sokka nodded. "All right, we get up on three. One—"

"—three." Zuko stood up. "Let's go."

Sokka whistled quietly. "You just can't take a break, can you," he murmured when Zuko was out of earshot.

They crept through the dense brambles, keeping low and avoiding trodding on any dry twigs that might alarm other potential prey in the area. Zuko led the way to the spot where Sokka had knocked out the large brown animal, and found—

"Nothing." Zuko narrowed his eyes at the empty carpet of dead leaves.

"Weird," Sokka said as he walked around. "I'm pretty sure it was just—"

Zuko heard a loud snap and turned to see a cloud of dust where Sokka had been standing. "Sokka, stop screwing around—" he began and was cut off by a hand desperately grabbing his ankle. Disoriented, he watched the leaf-strewn ledge vanish above him, before realizing that Sokka was dragging him down a steep embankment which neither of them had previously noticed.

"AAAAHHHH!" Zuko shouted at Sokka.

"AAAAHHHH!" Sokka shouted back, mirroring Zuko's look of terror.

They continued shouting at each other until Sokka hit a blunt outcrop, causing Zuko to topple on him, their combined inertia now spinning them together violently until they landed with a sickening squelch at the muddy end of the ravine.

For a few moments, they lay aching and immobile, completely winded by the sudden detour.

Sokka was the first to recover from the shock. "Ugh," he groaned, moving a limb experimentally. "Is that my leg?"

"Yeah, that's—ow!" Zuko let out a muffled yelp. "Okay, now that's _my_ leg."

"Sorry." Sokka gingerly tried shifting to the other side. "It was right on top of my chest. Couldn't breathe. Hey," he said as Zuko moved lower, "don't dig your bony hip into my—"

"That's not my hip," Zuko said without inflection.

Sokka froze. "Oh, uh…"

"That's my elbow."

"… right." Sokka sighed, immensely relieved. "I'll just… get my knee off your neck, then."

"Don't break my arm while you're at it," Zuko warned as he eased himself up.

With careful effort they extracted themselves from their tangled limbs, and emerged in a rich coating of mud and perspiration.

Sokka bent his back to pop out the cricks, and looked up. "Wow," he said with misplaced awe, backing up to take in the sheer height from where they had fallen.

"Yeah, if you like that sort of thing," Zuko said as he shook some feeling back into his arm. "Try not to trip over our dinner," he added mildly.

Sokka looked down too late. "What din—" he started, teetered for a moment, then tumbled inelegantly over the body of the animal he had knocked down earlier. He sat upright, doubly bruised now in both body and dignity. "I saw that," he muttered, poking the offending body in front of him, and was surprised when its thickly furred chest rose and fell in the motions of respiration. "Whaddaya know," Sokka said, faintly surprised, "the sucker's still alive."

"That's good," Zuko said, his back to Sokka as he surveyed their surroundings. "At least it won't rot on us while we try to find a way out of here."

Sokka stepped over the brown creature, and followed Zuko's gaze. "… where _is_ here, anyway?"

Whereas the forest above them had been dark and stifling, the small grove they were now in was much brighter, with a distinct freshness to its air. They had crashed into the wet, debris-riddled bank of a slow, meandering river that cut a glittering ribbon through the grove's sun-dappled grass. The clear water bubbled along, reflecting shafts of light that peeked through the thinner canopy and painted the riverbed in a variety of colors. The occasional fish shimmered amidst the stones, while birds fluttered unseen through the vines overhead, twittering with the insects into the soft breeze.

It was a place of breathtaking beauty. It was also in the middle of nowhere.

Sokka cocked his head, liking what he saw. "It's not so bad," he said as paced around. "I could even move out here, just me and a tent and good roaring campfire—"

"Can we talk about your retirement plans later?" Zuko cut in testily. "We're supposed to be back before dinner with some meat."

Sokka glanced up at the sun's position, and clicked his tongue. "Lighten up, will you?" he said. "It's only an hour before noon."

Zuko crossed his arms. "I would if I didn't have a collective death sentence hanging over my head from at least three starving benders."

"All right, all right," Sokka said, raising his hands in mock surrender. "I'll think of something." He shrugged off his weapons, walked over to the edge of the river, then unclipped the cord around his waist and pulled his sodden tunic over his head. He started kicking off his boots when he heard a cough behind him.

"That's your plan?" Zuko said, acid dripping from his voice. "Stripping?"

Sokka rolled his eyes. "You expect me to come up with brilliant ideas while I've got this gunk all over me?" He shimmied out of his leggings and dunked it in the river with the rest of his clothes. Zuko coughed again, but when Sokka looked up this time Zuko quickly looked away. Sokka raised an eyebrow, expression flat. "What, soaking up mud some kind of firebender thing?"

"No," Zuko began, still staring at the small patch of air beside his head with great interest, "it's just…" and he fell silent.

A flash of understanding crossed Sokka's face. "Listen," he said, unsure of what to say, "you're going to have to get used to this sort of thing if you're staying with us." He stared at his hands, surprised at his own embarrassment. "I mean, you don't have that kind of luxury anymore."

Zuko turned to Sokka at last, the rest of his unscarred face turning pink. "You're right," he said, dropping the scabbard holding his twin swords then untying the sash around his robe. He hesitated, then finally took off his robe as well.

Sokka smiled brightly at him. "Good man. Come here, you probably don't even know what manual laundry looks like."

"Hey," Zuko said, kneeling to peel his boots and trousers off, "I can wash clothes, too. I haven't been living inside the palace all my life." He demonstrated this by letting the slow current soften and carry off the excess mud on his trousers, then briskly rubbing the cloth together.

"I knew that," Sokka said, scrubbing a particularly stubborn stain at the base of his tunic with a stone, "but I thought you had a whole crew to do those kinds of stuff for you."

Zuko stilled his hands. "Not always. Eventually it was just me and Uncle." He tried to keep his voice even. "It wasn't as easy, but we got by."

Sokka gave up on the stain, opting instead to pin his clothes under a rock so it could soak through without getting washed downstream, then waded into the river until he was in waist-deep. "You seemed to be doing okay, back then," he said with an odd glance at Zuko before he pulled his hair down and plunged his head into the cold water, vigorously working out the encrustation of mud with his hands.

"Yeah," Zuko said, dropping his gaze to avoid having to watch Sokka straighten up and launch himself with fluid grace across the river. "Good times."

Sokka raised his sodden head when he heard again the faint bitterness that always laced Zuko's voice every time the subject of his uncle was brought up. He didn't like it the first time he heard it, and he didn't like it now. And as always, he blurted out something that he thought would distract the other boy out of his funk. "Hey," he called out, waving from the river's midpoint, "I can help you wash up here!"

Zuko flinched, but didn't look up. "When I'm done," he replied as he concentrated on rinsing his already clean shirt.

Noticing this, Sokka swam to a large rock jutting out from the water's surface in front of Zuko and flung himself over it, letting his legs float behind him in the sluggish current. "Am I really making you that uncomfortable?" he asked, flicking water at the hair falling over Zuko's eyes.

"No," Zuko said immediately, his face flushing again in flat contradiction.

Sokka heaved a sigh, realizing that Zuko wasn't going to play along. "Fine, fine," he said, dropping the humor from his tone as he pushed himself off the rock and waded back to shore. "Your turn, oh noble prince," he said with staged obeisance, using the motion to retrieve his submerged clothes.

The only warning Sokka heard was a low chuckle before a ball of wet clothes crash-landed into the side of his head. Fortunately he caught the scabbard that followed before it could do greater damage.

"Make yourself useful while I bathe," Zuko said imperiously, and whatever mutinous protest Sokka thought up died on his lips as he caught Zuko grinning with wicked delight, playing the perfectly arrogant princeling as he stepped into the water.

After raising an amused salute at Zuko's back, Sokka picked their clothes out of the water and laid them out to dry in a patch of sunlight on one side of a large, flat rock on the bank, then propped their weapons against it. He sat down heavily on the other side, tried kicking the large brown animal's inert body for some room, failed, then leaned on folded knees, and watched while he waited.

Zuko was much more economical with his bath, briskly cleaning out the clumps of dirt that caked on his skin and hair as he stood in water that only reached up to the top of his thighs. Finishing off with only a few handfuls of water to cool off his back and chest, he splashed back to the rock Sokka was sitting on and began putting on his wet clothes.

Sokka gave Zuko a look of utter disbelief. "Look, if you don't want to wait for your clothes to dry up because I'm here—"

"I'll be fine," Zuko said, nonplussed.

"If they didn't teach you this sort of thing at the Fire Nation Academy For Royal Idiots," Sokka began, thoroughly exasperated as Zuko ignored him and took a deep breath, "I'm telling you now that you're going to catch one hell of a cold if…"

Zuko exhaled forcefully, fingers spreading wide as a thick cloud of steam burst off the surface of his body.

Sokka nearly fell off the rock. "Whoa," he said as Zuko emerged from the fading mist, completely dry, "how did you—"

"Controlled firebending," Zuko said with a smug look eerily identical to his sister's. "I told you I'd be fine."

Sokka thought for a moment, then gestured beside him. "Could you do the same with mine?"

Zuko looked at Sokka in surprise, then smiled. "Sure," he said, passing his hands closely over Sokka's clothes and releasing just enough heat to dry without scorching. "Have you thought of a plan yet?" he asked when he had waved off the steam.

Sokka had the grace to stop gaping in astonishment. "Thanks, and I have," he said as he picked up his dry leggings and pulled them on, "but I'm gonna need some rope."

"And where'll you get that?"

Sokka pointed to the vines above them, flashing a grin.

Zuko pursed his lips doubtfully, but searched the detritus around the bank as Sokka finished dressing. He spotted a thick dead vine lying some way off and went to pick it up, checking first its weight and firmness. "What are you planning?" he asked, handing Sokka the vine.

Sokka pulled out his boomerang and tied one end of the vine to the handle. "Watch," he said dramatically. He threw a casual glance over his shoulder. "You might wanna hold on to something; this could get awesome."

Zuko merely cocked his head. "Show me."

Sokka coiled back for the throw, then in one powerful stroke he tossed the boomerang in such a way as to keep it from spinning less than it normally would. It soared straight up into the air, narrowly avoiding the dense vines, and wrapped itself securely around a tree branch on the ledge above them, the long vine trailing all the way down to the bank. Sokka gave it an experimental tug, then nodded with satisfaction when it didn't give way. He wound a section of the vine firmly around each gloved hand and began pulling himself up the loose earth of the slope.

"Not bad," Zuko said as he watched Sokka's halting ascent with approval.

"Naturally," Sokka hissed through gritted teeth. He was almost halfway up his climb when his weight proved too much for the vine's tensile limit. It snapped loudly in half, the lower end whipping over his head as he tumbled down the embankment again.

Zuko neatly stepped out of the way, snickering, but sobered up when he saw the look on Sokka's dust-riddled face. "I take that back," he amended, clearing his throat.

"_Thank_ you, Zuko," Sokka said, glaring daggers at the other boy. "Maybe next time you'll actually _help_ instead of—"

_Bonk_. The force of the break had unwound the vine from the branch and sent the boomerang dropping like a stone on Sokka's head, before it bounced off and landed dead center in the river.

Instantly Sokka recovered from the blinding pain. "Boomerang!" he cried out, waving frantically as he ran headlong into the river, splashing water about. "Boomerang, come back!"

Zuko ran after him, skidding to a halt at the edge of the water. "Sokka, wait, I just finished drying your—augh!" He slapped his hand hard against his face.

Meanwhile, Sokka had swum to the center of the river amidst a flurry of waves and eddies, probably the most action that river had ever seen in its life. Desperate, he cast his gaze around the riverbed when something glinted at the edge of his vision. He made his way towards the glint, ignoring the slippery moss beneath his feet, and thrust his arms deep into the water to retrieve his boomerang. "It's okay, baby, I've got you now," he cooed, cradling his boomerang in his arms as he waded to the bank, where Zuko was waiting for him, arms akimbo.

"What?" Sokka snapped, then noticed Zuko's pointed glare at his dripping clothes. "Oh. Um. Sorry about—"

"Shut up." Zuko strode over to the other boy, tore the boomerang out of Sokka's grasp and peeled off his scabbards, then tossed them all on the rock. "Turn around," he barked, forcing Sokka in an abrupt about-face.

Sokka tried to look over his shoulder. "… should I take my clothes off?" he asked timidly.

"Leave them," Zuko replied, gripping Sokka's shoulder tight and roved his free hand down the other boy's back, emitting a little more heat than necessary.

Sokka cringed as he felt the steam searing his back. He could smell the sharp odor he'd always noticed when he was too close to live firebending. "Hey, Zuko," he gasped, feeling pain and something else entirely unassociated with getting boiled alive, "that's really starting to hurt."

"Good." Zuko straightened up after he finished drying the back of Sokka's calves, then yanked Sokka by his arm and spun him around so they faced each other. Zuko stepped closer and ran his hands over the hair plastered to Sokka's head, almost but not quite touching it. Then he moved his hands down, radiating heat from his splayed fingers over Sokka's chest to his waist, when a frisson suddenly rippled along the other boy's body. Abruptly Zuko shut his hands, blinking rapidly in consternation. "Okay, maybe this wasn't such a good idea."

"No, keep going." Sokka resisted the urge to grab Zuko's hands and force the scalding heat back on his skin. "You're doing great."

Zuko glanced down, amusement ghosting over his features. "_You're_ not."

Sokka blew air through his nose. "I'm a teenage boy. You're feeling me up. How _else_ am I supposed to react?"

"Self-control," Zuko said serenely. He opened his hands, keeping them one tantalizing inch away from Sokka's chest, and turned the heat up. "Will I be able to continue, or are you just going to keep reacting at me?"

"Geez, man," Sokka said plaintively, edging closer, "loosen _up_."

A pause. Zuko cranked his smile a notch higher, then fisted Sokka's tunic tight and crushed their lips together so brutally Sokka felt their teeth clash. Sokka's hands moved on their own, snaking inside Zuko's loose outer robe, searching for the other boy's bare skin, and through his haze he felt Zuko's tongue slip between his lips, slowly licking the back of his teeth, and Sokka, impatient for more, flicked his tongue against Zuko's, and Zuko responded eagerly as he linked his fingers behind Sokka's back, then ground his hips fiercely against Sokka's, who surged one leg between Zuko's thighs, and only when they were on the verge of falling over did Zuko finally pull away.

"Loose enough?" Zuko murmured, leaning his forehead against Sokka's.

Sokka chuckled as he continued frisking Zuko's clothes, but when he found the slit he'd been looking for he quickly pulled back, wringing his stinging hand. "Shit, Zuko, you're burning up," he said, the ozone scent lancing through his nose once more. "What happened to self-control?"

"Gone," Zuko said without much concern as he tried to force his temperature back down. "And I think we should take our clothes off," he added, brushing his fingers through Sokka's loose hair, "just in case I accidentally ignite them."

"Will you now?" Sokka raked his nails hard down Zuko's robe and nearly ripping out the knotted sash in his haste. "I thought you didn't want to have to wash and dry them all over again."

Zuko hooked a finger through the cord around Sokka's waist and reeled him in close, their breaths mingling. "I'm not running out of heat any time soon."

Sokka smirked. "Good, because I know a few things we could do with that extra heat." Deftly he maneuvered the other boy into a half-supine position on the rock and straddled his hips. As he leaned down to suckle on the skin between Zuko's neck and shoulder, he scrabbled at his robe to pull it off, and in between choked gasps Zuko entangled his fingers with Sokka's, trying to help. After some hasty fumbling they stripped his torso bare, and Sokka eagerly slid the tip of his nose down Zuko's quivering stomach, savoring in the other boy's hot, musky scent. He was already slipping a hand under the trousers' waistband when he felt Zuko grip his other wrist.

"Whoa, whoa," Zuko wheezed, "hold up." He propped himself up on an elbow and stared at Sokka, his mouth swollen and panting. "Where are you going with this?"

Sokka pushed himself up and threw Zuko a sour look, almost invisible against the noon sun behind him. "I'm obliging you, you sack of shit. You could at least show me a little gratitude."

Zuko released Sokka's wrist and raised his hand placatingly. "It's not that I don't appreciate this, but…" He motioned to their intimate position, and squeezed his eyes shut. "This is a little too much for me to deal with right now."

"Huh." Sokka rolled off Zuko and landed beside him, feeling vaguely deprived as he crossed one ankle over his knee. "You tell me that after getting me all worked up."

Zuko stiffened. "_What?_"

Sokka easily met Zuko's glare. "You kissed me first."

"_You_ looked like you needed it," Zuko retorted, staring down the bridge of his nose.

Sokka huffed as he turned away. "So, what, you just decided to wank me off out of the goodness of your heart?" he said, the tightness across his groin grabbing his attention.

Zuko shrugged. "Seemed like a good idea."

They lapsed into silence. Sokka peered at Zuko out of the corner of his eye. "You do this sort of thing with your girlfriend a lot?"

"Yeah," Zuko replied, his tone deliberately casual.

Sokka tucked one arm underneath his head, and continued nonchalantly, "What else did you do?"

Zuko leveled an arch look at Sokka. "You sure you wanna know?" he asked, his tone almost teasing.

"Oh, crap, I walked right into that one, didn't I." Sokka flung a hand over his heated face, embarrassed. "No, never mind, I don't want to know."

"Here, lemme show you," Zuko said as he promptly climbed back on top of Sokka.

"Hey," Sokka said, laughing in surprise, "who said you could call the shots?"

Zuko raised an eyebrow scathingly. "Why, do you know what to do?"

Sokka pouted. "… no."

Zuko traced pale fingers up Sokka's tanned skin, sending shudders jumping along the other boy's wiry frame. "Then let me handle it."

.. .. .. ..

Apologies for the cockblock, but I'm not writing a second chapter. I have no faith in my ability to make a decent enough continuation. :c


End file.
